Friday, 11 December 2015

News update: Debts on hold at Jolla

Debt restructuring and Sailfish OS 2.0.1 update

As part of Jolla's debt restructuring process, The Court in Finland has set Jolla's debts to temporary hold until the starting of the actual process is decided. In the meanwhile, Jolla is looking forward for financial round for December, and preparing the next system update for their Sailfish OS mobile operating system. Juhani Lassila, Head of Communications at Jolla, seems positive on financing.

News update: Debts on hold at Jolla

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Additional to the file for debt restructuring, Jolla had also filed for a temporary restriction for debt collection. The Court in Finland has recently granted the latter. According to Juhani Lassila, Head of Communications at Jolla, this is part of Jolla's plan in the debt restructuring. Translated from Jolla's application:

"The active debt collection actions could undermine the whole purpose of the reorganization process and hamper the company's business in the implementation of relevant agreements and investments," states in the company's file sent to Helsinki District Court.

In practice, this fresh Court decision gives Jolla a temporary relief on all those debts they filed, while Jolla is still waiting for the Court decision on the debt restructuring process. According to Finnish news site Tivi, the temporary hold issue was seen as urgent in The Court as it was exceptionally decided without hearing the creditors.

Starting the debt restructuring is processed on The Court later. Lassila shares that if the restructuring process gets started, it's duration is decided with a liquidator assigned to the process. The liquidator would hear both the creditors and Jolla, and present a restructuring plan for all parties to accept.

Future activity at Jolla is also dependent on the decision, but it's even more dependent on the success of the financial round on December. According to Lassila "it's vital" for Jolla to go on. Currently, he seems to be hopeful on this:

"It looks positive, and a solution is possible already in the next few days."

While Jolla sails on lower blow after laying off 70 employees, filing for debt restructuring and searching for investors and partners, at least the core business, developing Sailfish OS further, seems to be going on. The next system update, Sailfish OS 2.0.1, is coming up soon:

"It's been on the table, and it should reach Early Access -stage by the end of next week, if there will be no surprises," says Lassila.

Update, January 11, 2016: Juhani Lassila shared us later that a required security fix has delayed the next release. Early Access version should be released by January 15th, 2016.

Jolla Tablet shipping is still on ice, but a new Sailfish OS smartphone by Intex in India is expected in the beginning of next year.

This translation from the original Tivi news article is very very inaccurate and gives quite a lot more positive outlook on things than in the news. This is ofc natural for this site but in this case the big picture is far from being so hopeful. As a long time Jolla/SailfishOS acdvocate and Tablet IGG-campaign contributor I very much hope that Jolla succeeds in pulling itself to more "solid ground" (bun unintended) to secure it's flagship, SailfishOS, to sail to a brighter future of alternative #open mobile tech & OS @ devices. Quite an effort that even with only some 30 sailors onboard Jolla is able to release the next 2.02 update and also inform us in just maybe few days tine whether they get the Dec/2015 financing round finalized or not. This also will determine whether the 10.000+ Tablets will be shipped or not. The announced court ruling just gives Jolla those few days that might be all that is needed to secure the future of the company and it's OS but no-one knows how this will end-up (except the financers and the court judges that must still accept the re-structuring of the company and/or depts). Lets hope that the tides will rise high for Jolla/SailfishOS and our Tablet very soon - the dream is not over yet :)

Thanks for your comment. Just to correct one misunderstanding: This is not a translation of the article you mention, this is written by what was discussed with Juhani Lassila. Tivi is a 2nd source which was used on: "According to Finnish news site Tivi, the temporary hold issue was seen as urgent in The Court as it was exceptionally decided without hearing the creditors."

I cannot believe that they are hypocrites. They fraud people on the campaign by using that money for OS development and yet they simply move on with their personal interests. Also I cannot believe that there are so much assh*** that only think of their software update while rest of us are still without devices that we paid a year ago. I've read so much BS about risk on IGG, but let me remind you of their main rule that Jolla has accepted under "Disputes between Campaign Owners and Contributors". I will quote: "Campaign Owners are legally bound to perform on any promise and/or commitment to Contributors (including delivering any Perks). " and second part which is more important: "If a Campaign Owner is unable to perform on any promise and/or commitment to Contributors, the Campaign Owner will work with the Contributors to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution, which may include the issuance of a refund of Contributions by the Campaign Owner." They confessed that they cannot deliver tablet, so what is the holdup with money refund. They need to comply to the terms that they've agreed. We have full faith in Jolla, and they tricked us, so before you start glorifying them, start by moving into our position and think strait.

In order to get the tablet working they had to improve the OS first, so I can understand that. To my opinion this company suffered from a kind of hybris, born out of pure enthousiasm as a start up. The captain was hailed like a messiah, which is not a good thing. They wanted too much. The idea of making a tablet was a mistake. Jolla would have done better to improve the phones and to create financial customer accounts like google play and itunes. Then they would have grown into an adult company. Now it is all so childish and amaturistic. It was mismanagement, stupidity, but not fraude.I am waiting for that tablet too, but for me the survival of the company and of the developing of the OS is most important.

Well, I for myself--in the probably never-ending wait for the 3 Jolla tablets I have paid for--am feeling extremely disappointed and annoyed at the current outcome of events. Let's hope I finally get the tablets... Yet, adding to my frustration, there is another project I have sunk my money into--Neo900. That one was supposed to be ready by the end of the year and apparently the funds got blocked by PayPal (ie put in 'reserve' funds). What a nightmare! Two of the best looking tablet/phone projects I had thought might bring really promising software/hardware combination seem to have failed miserably so far! Probably, not having been quite wise investing in such volatile projects... well, once beaten, twice shy--so next time I would most probably steer clear. Shame and pity as possibly other might think similarly and any good future projects would suffer from becoming a failure! This is just growing lack of trust... following the obvious anger and disappointment!

Last year I backed for the Jolla tablet, but I don't expect to get it after this misery. Recently I backed for Puzzlephone. Wish me good luck! This will be the last time ever that I support any crowdfunding.

Looks like the manufacturer is dumping the tablets in Taobao, so that is it for the IGG campaigners - we won't be seeing our tablets.http://world.taobao.com/item/525246736574.htm

As for the software update being needed for the tablet, all I can say is bullshit. I don't believe that an investment bigger than that on hardware was needed to get Sailfish to run on the tablets. What seems clear is that Jolla needed the money to develop Sailfish 2.0, so that they could sell it, and "diverted" the funds from the tablet.

Hi all, and thanks for each comment here! Nice to find some great activity around the news. For tablet related discussion, this post might work better - The campaign is currently on ice, but not doomed quite yet. If shipping in the end, the tablets will be shipped very much delayed.

On financing, Jolla's captain Antti Saarnio shared today that Jolla has received some investement, but they are still on tight situation. Another news post on this is coming up tomorrow, and I'm expecting to be able to share some news on the tablet campaign in just few weeks.